In electronic publishing, complex documents are routinely created utilizing input from a multitude of source data files and software programs, prior to printing, transmitting or recording such documents. A single electronically recorded document may contain a variety of elements, such as text, pictures, formatting codes, font characteristics, etc. In addition, some elements may be present not in their entirety, but as reference pointers to divers locations, be they local, such as a data storage disks, or remote, such as remote network sites. Locations can be of so called `logical` type or `physical` type.
For example, in case of `logical` type of location a portion of a physical storage magnetic disc drive can be designated as a separate storage disc drive and treated by a publishing system accordingly.
An example of a physical storage location would be a removable magnetic diskette, commonly referred to as a "floppy disk."
Document elements can be nested within each other, which further complicates the structure of the overall document.
When one attempts to print, transmit or record such documents, unexpected problems frequently arise.
For instance, an error frequently occurs when one or more document elements are missing during the submission for printing because in the document they are represented as links or pointers only and are somehow unavailable or simply not included in their entirety in the document.
Another type of problem arises when a document is created in a format, or contains settings incompatible with an intended printing engine or transmission or recording apparatus or system.
Yet another set of problems occurs when a file specifies certain fonts and text attributes which were available at the time of document creation, but are not supported by the printing apparatus, or transmission or recording environment. Such situation may arise when a document was created on one computer system but was then transferred for printing to another computer system. Also, frequently problems arise when fonts of different type families, for example, so called `Type 1` and `TrueType` are present in the same document.
Print, transmission or recording errors also occur due to a data corruption of the source document which may occur due to a variety of causes, some of which are errors in electronic transmission of documents, copying, compression and decompression, encryption and decryption, and damage to document storage media, to name a few.
Some of the errors and inconsistencies in a document result in incorrect printing, recording or transmission of the documents while other errors and inconsistencies result in a complete failure to print, transmit or record the document.
In view of the above, it would be desirable, therefore, to pre-test documents prior to printing, transmission or recording to uncover any potential printing, transmission or recording problems. In the printing industry this process is commonly referred to as `pre-press` or `pre-flight` checking.
The problem of pre-flight checking, though, is not a simple one. The majority of programs that create electronic documents utilize proprietary data formatting and sometimes data encryption which make reading and analysis of created documents difficult and inefficient, if not impossible, without running a computer application program that was originally used to create a document. Moreover, a single document may contain elements created with a multiplicity of document creation software, making pre-flight checking the entire document impossible using the document creation software itself. Additionally, many of the errors or inconsistencies cannot be discovered by simply viewing the document since the document or file may look perfectly normal on the user's display device, but contain incompatible elements with regard to the final printing, transmission or recording process or apparatus. The problems become increasingly complex when dealing with what is commonly referred to as "multi-media" files. These files may contain a variety of elements including text, graphics, sound, moving pictures, "hyper-text," databases, spreadsheets, algorithms, computer code, telecommunications linking programs, among others.
There are several commercial software packages which attempt to alleviate some output problems by providing users with rudimentary tools to examine the document prior to printing. However, these tools have been largely limited to examining only documents created by a `native` applications (i.e. the applications used to create the file or document) and have been limited to few functions, such as `missing fonts`, missing images`, `unused colors.` QuarkXPress by Quark, Inc. is one example of such a software.
The present invention, on the other hand, provides comprehensive error-checking, utilizing `learn-by example` technology to automatically create new tests in addition to pre-installed set of tests to be performed on a document to ascertain its printability.
The software tools that do have the capability of reading a document in `non-native` format in addition to limited scope of documents they can read, lack the pre-print analysis capability of the present invention and are used only to display documents. Adobe Acrobat by Adobe Systems is one such example.
Furthermore, these tools do not provide any suggested remedies to the errors found. The present invention, on the other hand offers an extensive library of possible solutions, as well as a unique artificial intelligence feature, where new potential solutions are created automatically from historical examples by a self-learning feature.
Still other software tools, such as APS-PreFlight by Systems of Merritt Company, provide limited pre-print testing, but only on a so-called PostScript file types, and only regarding print errors which may occur while a file is being printed. This offers little utility to a user, since it only alerts to possible print-time errors while not addressing other errors that might have occurred prior to generation of a print-type file, such as missing or empty document elements. Coupled with lack of suggestions to remedy errors, and failure to show locations of the errors within a document, this seriously hampers usefulness of these tools.
Some software vendors, realizing the importance of keeping document elements together, include a gathering function in their pre-press tools. One such tool is offered as part of QuarkXPress by Quark, Inc. However, the gathering function in this application is greatly limited, for it does not include fonts, dictionaries, and extensions which still have to be manually gathered. This severely impacts usability of the tool, because a user failure to include a single font or other element may result in a serious print error. Unavailable or wrong fonts are among the leading causes of print errors.
The purpose of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an improved method of opening, examining and evaluating electronically-recorded documents, prior to printing.
It is another purpose of this invention to alert the user of potential printing, transmission or recording problems.
It is another purpose of this invention to provide a method to open computer files, particularly documents, created by various software tools, on different computer platforms.
It is yet another purpose of the present invention to provide an improved method to open, examine and evaluate electronically-recorded documents, created by a variety of software applications without actually running these applications.
It is another purpose of this invention to accept and evaluate electronically-recorded documents in compressed or encrypted format.
It is yet another purpose of this invention to enable assembly of all elements of electronically-recorded documents into a single location.
It is yet another purpose of this invention to present suggestions of possible ways to remedy problems found in the electronically-recorded documents.
It is another purpose of this invention to create a list of potential printing, recording or transmission problems found in electronically-recorded documents.
It is yet another purpose of this invention to enable user to select criteria against which the electronically-recorded document's fitness for printing, transmission or recording is checked.
It is another purpose of this invention to automatically create a set of criteria against which the electronically-recorded document's fitness for printing is checked.
It is yet another purpose of this invention to provide a report of all errors and inconsistencies found in the electronically-recorded document in a format selected by the user, which may be made compatible with electronic data exchange structures.
Advantageously, the present invention enables a user to efficiently proof electronically-recorded documents prior to printing, transmission or recording. The process does not require running a software applications program which was used to create the particular electronically-recorded document; rather, the applications' information is gleaned from the files themselves, along with its corresponding attributes. This provides substantial time and cost saving to the pre-press process.
Additionally, the present invention provides a complete check of computer files' elements, in particular, documents' elements, and automatically determines its ability to be printed, recorded or transmitted.
The result of the pre-press, pre-transmission or pre-recording checking and verification process can be displayed for immediate communication to the user. A file containing a list of errors and inconsistencies found in a electronically-recorded document, can also be generated, along with a list of possible steps to remedy them.
In addition, a self-learning feature (also known to those versed in the art as artificial intelligence or expert system) automatically analyzes and stores historical examples of potential print problems and, drawing from the historical analyses, automatically creates suggestions to user as to possible ways to remedy potential printing, recording or transmission problems.
The method of the present invention also provides for an output formatted in specific ways, to further facilitate an exchange of information between all parties involved in production of printed matter, such as customers, service bureaus, and printing establishments, transmission facilities and recording services.
Thus, the present invention offers substantial savings in time and resources to the electronic publishing, transmission and recording industries by providing a comprehensive set of features and performance in a single application.